Where are you, Alice?
by AngelicType
Summary: This is a happier version of the manga "Are you Alice?" Of course, I can't guarantee that no one will die. Alice who wandered into Wonderland must fulfill her destiny to complete the story and set the characters in Wonderland free, but will she succeed?
1. Chapter 1: The Search for Alice

CHAPTER 1: The search for Alice

Have you ever wanted to be in a dream, where untold adventures could be had? Building friendship bonds in the face of death? Where you are the _valiant hero_ and you perish while trying to save everyone? Where you find _eternal happiness_?

Well, don't. Because it'll be never-ending and I know. Wonderland is never-ending and I'm its creator. _And I regret._ Whenever anyone sees me, I'm a monster in their eyes, a trash,_ a regret filled with eternal sorrow_ because I failed in continuing the story I have created. The story which has trapped its owner until a destiny is fulfilled by the_ true Alice._

* * *

><p>The Queen of Hearts sipped her cherry-flavored wine. Tilting the wineglass, the wine poured slowly into her barely-opened mouth. Then she let go of it. The wineglass seemed to hover mischievously in the air as the Jack of Hearts held a cushion underneath it to stop its fall. He missed narrowly and it crashed onto the ground, shattering into infinite shards, allowing the red liquid to flow onto the red carpet.<p>

The Queen of Heart's eyes narrowed into slits. She laughed semi-hysterically and proclaimed that it was 'off with your head' for Jack. Jack kneeled down, trembling violently, while the Queen stood over him, clutching her sharpened scythe lovingly, her cruel eyes laughing silently in_ triumph_. And the scythe slid cleanly through the Jack's throat, severing Jack's head and body apart, where his blood spilt out immediately like a faulty water hose.

The scythe was once more effortlessly sharpened.

He would not really die anyway. She was not meant to kill him.

Bored, she set aside her favourite weapon and thought about when would Alice come and pay wonderland a visit.

_If only I hadn't been so greedy, I would have been the Alice that Destiny decreed. Where are you, Alice? Come out, come out wherever you are._

And the queen smirked bitterly, resting her chin on her knuckles where her arms lazed on the red manchette of the wooden arm rest.

* * *

><p>Alice sat, leaning on a tree trunk. Looking at the sky, she murmured, "It's too blue. And I can see a cloud which resembles a rabbit. A white rabbit." Peering down at her older sister, Ariana, she decided to sneak out, to play for a while. She leapt off the tree branch, and with a bumpity-bump, landed on the grassland.<p>

"Oh, I'm going to be late. I'm going to be LATE. I have to hurry. I'm going to be LATE!" a high-pitched voice sounded behind her. Alice turned around, seeing a girl with rabbit ears on her head. A frantically muttering girl. A girl running on four legs instead of two. Alice followed her, although a little hesitantly. The girl with white rabbit ears -_'Are they real?' Alice thought-_looked behind, and, seemingly alarmed of Alice having noticed her, she sped up. "Wait, don't go. I want to play with you. What's your name, little girl?" Alice asked, still briskly following her. She had to weave her way through branches, tree roots and fallen tree logs. Now in a deeper and darker part of the forest, she was lost.

"I'm going to be late. Where's the burrow? I'm going to be late," the girl shrieked again. "And don't follow me!" the little girl warned, turning her head to look at Alice. Then she bounded into a huge hole which was camouflaged between two gigantic oak trees and likely to have been intentionally dug up, and did not resurface. Alice tilted her head, curious. Where could the hole lead to? Deftly, she threw a small pebble into the massive burrow and looked down. The pebble seemed to fall and fall, until it could not be seen again.

While bending over to look into the hole, her book slipped from her hand. Quickly, Alice tried to catch it.

Alas, it fell into the hole, down and down until it was swallowed up into the unknown territory below. Thinking about how she was already lost and that taking a learning journey beneath the undergrowth wouldn't hurt much, she held her breath and stepped into the burrow.

While falling, Alice seemed to slow down, as if gravity's pull on her had been released, little by little. Also, the air which resisted her below was warm. She looked around. Old antiques, delightful food, and bedroom furniture were falling alongside her. She reached out for an ice cream and licked it. It felt warm and salty. Shocked, she flung the ice cream. Then she sat on a seemingly comfortable couch, which turned out to be a flock of sparrows. The couch dissolved into individual birds that flew in all directions. It seemed that everything was distorted and not what it seemed to be.

After awhile, she grew bored. Looking down, she saw a myriad of colours, so many hues to take in in a single glance that temporarily blinded her. When she regained her sight, she noticed there were huts and tents and buildings, a sign that humans were around. Humans who lived so deep beneath the undergrowth. A place that experienced sunlight without the sun, a _distorted_ paradise underneath the earth that she had never imagined. Directly below her, there was a beach and people were holding hands and dancing in the rays of sunset. It was a heart-warming sight.

But not all places were happy-go-lucky. At a far end, Alice saw a magnificent tropical forest with very tall trees, which seemed to cast gloomy shadows within it. She was sure that only silence was to be expected there. A place where even birds avoided and people dreaded and things never recovered. Shuddering involuntarily, she hoped she would never have to set foot into that place which possibly inhabited dangerous creatures.

Chasing the energetic, frantic little girl had exhausted her and she had wanted to take a little nap, but now, she felt energized and optimistic that she was going to have an adventure here. Alice day-dreamed about making a friend, the little girl from before with the cute bunny ears which she had chased to the burrow. _After all, I don't have a single friend._ Probably, she would also ask the bunny girl how she could get home.

* * *

><p>"Oof!"Alice landed on unceremoniously on her bottom. Strange, what could have reduced the impact of her fall? She had fallen from what, a hundred feet above. Scanning the beach, there was not a soul to be seen to ask for help. Alice tried to hoist her sinking legs from the sand by using all her arm strength to push against safe ground. The effort was futile. All it did was to make matters worse. The more she tried to hoist herself upwards, the more she got mysteriously pulled back into the quicksand, as if a monster lay beneath it, playfully and slowly tugging her leg, until she fell completely into its grasp. Alice gave up resisting. It would only quicken the pace of her sinking.<p>

Looking at the sky the one last time, as the unseen sun's warm orangey-pink rays caressed her face lovingly, she closed her eyes and anticipated her head sinking into the quicksand, completely buried under the quicksand and leaving no trace that she ever existed, except for the bones left below if anybody bothered to clear the quicksand first. She would be trapped in the molten undergrowth beneath an undergrowth. Haha, she thought sarcastically, if this was what people thought before they died, then they had died with smiles on their face...


	2. Chapter 2: Meeting the Cheshire Cat

Alice's eyes widened as she recalled that if she distributed her weight equally to all her body parts, less weight would act on any of her individual limbs and she wouldn't sink. She spread her arms and legs and rested her head level to the quicksand.

Her lower body rose slowly out of its imprisonment. Then, she grabbed wildly above her until she found a solid branch. Pulling the branch with all of her might, her entire body was lifted into the air.

Relieved, Alice held the branch with both hands and hoped that it wouldn't break. Then she used her legs to swing herself._ Front_, _back_,_ front_, _back_...

The momentum brought her very close to the edge of land that wasn't quicksand. Just then, she heard a creaking sound, realising that the tree branch was breaking. With one last swing, she leapt into the air and landed clumsily on her bottom again. Her bottom _ached_.

"Are you Alice?" an amused voice asked. She looked around. But there was no one.

Before she could freak out, the same voice called out to her. "I'm here, on top of a tree." A teenage boy dressed in a cat costume was lying atop the trunk of the palm tree. His greyish crystal clear eyes switched to babyblue and he winked. "And you have passed the first test amazingly. Not many people who come here can escape from the quicksand you know." He grinned widely at her, his teeth sparkling in the sunlight. "Who are you?"

"I'm Alice," she answered simply, too surprised and tired to say anything more. This was a weird place. A place where people wore clothes that represented animals.

The cat held her eyes, his eyes flashed from babyblue to gold. When he spoke again, his playful tone turned serious. "I guess you're wrong about that. You see, you are _Probably Alice_." He faded away into the surroundings, materialising at her side.

Alice gasped. "You are a teleporter!" She stared at him disbelievingly and quickly regained her composure. "Who are you and what do you mean by 'Probably Alice'? My given name is Alice and I'm Alice. What right do you have, to doubt the name I was given?" she bristled at his words.

"Quite right," he agreed amiably, "but this is Wonderland. In Wonderland, the name 'Alice' is earned, not given. And you have just taken a very small step to earning it. I am the Cheshire Cat and you'll usually find me by the Dutchess's side. For now, I bid you farewell."

Alice was contemplating his words when a hand cuffed her right wrist and she was pulled along. She looked back and saw the Cheshire Cat waving at her, and grinning again. Like before, he dematerialised. She looked at her captor. He had spiky silver hair and was dressed in a grey suit. He was pulling her towards a campfire celebration of some sort. She had just noticed that it was night in this place.

The fire flared magnificently. Its flames boasted of brilliant shades of colours, connected so The people around it danced merrily around the fire. As Alice neared the campfire site, she could make out that the people were also wearing suits that represented different animals too, like seagulls, clams, crabs and lobsters. They were holding hands and dancing around the fire, laughing and singing merrily.

_Round and round the fire, a never-ending cycle. People come and stay, never finding the reason to go. They have found an excuse: an eternal happiness._

Her captor pulled her into the tightly-knitted circle. The girl in the seagull suit smiled invitingly at her and held her left hand while her captor held her right. Alice was part of the circle now.

_The circle with no start and no ending._

Round and round she went around the campfire until she felt dizzy.

She felt the happiness and the intimacy like the family she had always wanted. She understood why they stayed. There were no troubles to worry about, nothing to feel miserable about. She wanted to remain there forever, hanging out with these happy people all day long and dancing to her heart's content.

But she could not. She had to return to her sister, the only family she had. Her sister must be worried about her. It was late at night and she had to find a way home, by first finding the white rabbit.

She asked the seagull girl where the white rabbit was. The girl ignored her question and continued dancing. Alice wanted to ask the boy with the spiky silver hair who had pulled her here. She turned to her right to ask him- He had disappeared. She was holding hands with a boy in a crab suit. No wonder her fingers felt like they were pinched. She winced.

Alice tried to pull free of the hands holding hers but she was too weak. Desperately, she bent down and bit their hands hard. She tasted a salty tang. She had bitten their hands until they bled. The seagull girl and crab boy tried to pull her back but Alice scrambled away, too fast for them to reach out for her again.

She ran up a hill, only daring to look back when she was well away. It appeared as if the seagull girl and crab boy had given up on catching her and keeping her in the circle. They were dancing around the fire again.

Tired and no shelter to stay in, Alice climbed atop a tree with difficulty. She gazed up at the night sky. The night sky was beautiful and mystical. The stars twinkled every now and then, like little gems decorating a plain background. Her eyelids drooped and she sank into a slumber.

But not for long.

"Ah, you must be Probably Alice,"a voice cackled, in obvious glee. She shuddered, feeling goose bumps on her skin.

Trouble. _Not again._


	3. Chapter 3: Regrets Forever

Her tired eyes peered sleepily at her foggy surroundings. As she looked down, she glanced directly into a miny light source. Alice flinched involuntarily. She opened her eyes once more, her eyes getting accustomed to the pallid light. She realised that a girl around the age of ten was holding a lamp up study her. She seemed like a stereotypical kind of girl, with her slender frame and gentle gestures.

The cackle she had heard a moment ago could not have come from this girl. Her imagination had been seriously whacky ever since she entered 'Wonderland'.

"I-I'm lost and scared of the dark. I can't find my way back home. Can you accompany me?" the girl asked timidly. She seemed distraught and on the verge of breaking down at any moment.

"Alright," Alice agreed amiably. She leapt from the tree and landed on the balls of her feet.

The girl smiled tentatively at Alice and began to speak, "Are you Alice?"

"Yes I am, but how did you know my name? Did I meet you from somewhere else?" Alice replied, puzzled.

"Where have you been all this while? I was searching for you," the girl inquired softly. Her eyes glinted dangerously and she focused her piercing gaze on Alice. "Return my name to me. I am Alice. You are undeserving of the title, you nobody!" she bellowed.

Alice who was taken aback by her sudden outburst, could only gape at her in deep shock.

With inconceivable speed, the girl advanced towards Alice. Her fingers closed neatly around Alice's neck and she began strangling her. Alice could feel the blood draining her face, as if she were a rapidly deflating balloon. A numbness caused by the lack of oxygen lasted for a few seconds before the real pain began to hit her. She needed oxygen badly. Grasping the situation fully now, she tried to wrench the girl's grasp off her neck but she was too weak.

The effort seemed to deplete her of her limited oxygen even faster and she knew it was futile - the girl was too strong. The girl cackled maliciously and her eyes seemed to mock Alice.

Alice desperately aimed at one of the girl's knees and gave it a forceful kick. In an attempt to break her fall, the girl released her grip on Alice's neck. Sensing a wonderful opportunity to escape, Alice broke into a run. She ran and ran until she felt sure that the stranger was gone.

She turned back to see if the girl had ran after her. Then she turned her head to face the front and she gasped. The girl was right in front of her and she was clutching a blood-stained dagger.

"You can't escape from me now, you fraud Alice," she hissed threateningly. "I killed many other 'Alice's and I will kill you as well!"

Just as she lunged for the kill, she grabbed at her chest and collapsed onto the ground. A dark liquid flowed out of the hole in her chest percolated the grassland. She was dead.

"Now, now, getting yourself into trouble already, Probably Alice? If I were you, I wouldn't risk my little life by claiming that I were 'Alice'." A muscular man leaned against a tree trunk and surveyed her expressionlessly. He had on a black top hat, a dressy and old-fashioned black tuxedo, along with a pair of glossy black leathered shoes. "If I hadn't been there, you could have died, you know," his tone became reprimanding. "The gun is still working fine," he added casually.

"How did you shoot her when I didn't hear anything? Who are you?" Alice demanded shakily. This random stranger just suddenly appeared and saved her life. But he too appeared to be a maniac.

"Well, aren't you just a numb-skull? The gun is able to shoot without sound. And don't you know, just by looking at my hat, that I'm the Mad Hatter?" he asked irritably. "Yet another bothersome amateur that I have to defend. Come along now, other regrets may come for you."

He turned and strode briskly ahead. Alice glanced back at the dead girl and she saw a stirring in the bushes close to the dead girl. As she stared on, three deformed figures stepped out and ran towards her.

Like before, Alice only gawked at them, without making any moves to protect herself. She heard the crunch of leaves ahead of her stop and knew that the Hatter dude was glancing at the running figures.

"Damn," she heard him mutter. They suddenly crumbled to the ground with similar gaping holes in their chest like the dead girl. She turned around to see the Hatter keeping his silver gun. Yet more deformed humanoids were advancing towards them. The Hatter grabbed her arm and pulled her along in his run.

"You need to know how to keep out of trouble, even though I'm responsible for keeping you safe. Those 'people' who came out of the bushes and the dead girl who tried to kill you are Regrets. Regrets were once people. They had turned into these undead monstrosities because they were unsatisfied or regretted something deeply. Regrets love to drag people they like or hate with them. They drag their family members down with them when they are lonely, people who delve in self-pity or thoughts of death, and mostly, they would love to just get their hands on Alice," the Hatter explained with a sadistic grin.

"Then why did the girl tell me to return the name 'Alice' to her?" Alice questioned breathlessly.

"She was a 'Probably Alice' like you, but she failed in becoming the true Alice. And if you fail too, you will die," the Mad Hatter answered matter-of-factly.


End file.
